National Finals

Santa Pod Raceway

23rd – 25th September 2016

A little disappointed, but a fantastic winning year !

We arrived at Santa Pod on Friday and set up the pit and awning, we scrutineerd the car and then had a relaxing time before the event started with 3 qualifying runs on Saturday.

The UK Championship was very close with any one of the first 5 competitors in with a chance of taking the UK National Championship crown; Brad was lying in 2nd place and we were hopeful of a great event.
The first round I dialled a 7.76 and Brad ran a 7.80, 4 hundredths of a second off the dial in, this time placed Brad in 5th position so was a great start to the day.

The second round I dialled a 7.79 and Brad ran a 7.82, 3 hundredths of a second off the dial in, although this was a slight improvement due to the others improving this dropped us to 7th.

The third and final qualifier was crucial especially for the qualifying points, I dialled a 7.81 to try and get us nearer the top.

Brad came round and did a burnout, I felt the sun had been on the track and my instinct told me we were going to run quicker so just before I took Brad to the line I changed our dial in to 7.79, Brad ran 7.795 a great result, 5 thousandths of a second over the dial in put us in 3rd place. The car and Brad were performing well so we looked forward to the eliminations on Sunday morning.

Sunday morning brought a little rain shower so the start was delayed by about an hour. The first round of eliminations made interesting reading, Billy Gane (No 1 in the championship ) against Scott Hauser (No 3 in the championship) and Brad ( No 2 in the championship ) against Ian Powell ( no 4 in the championship) if you were a betting man then you would have got some very long odds against that happening ! Chris Parker (No 5 in the championship) had a bye run due to being No1 qualifier.

Scott beat Billy and Ian beat Brad, this now meant that Scott only had to go 2 rounds of eliminations to be champion for the 3rd time.

Ian Powell dialled 8.13 and ran 8.131, with a reaction time of 0.04 was a clear winner, it is a little strange when we talk in these numbers that Brad’s package was 0.0241, 2 hundredths of a second off our prediction and Ian’s package was 0.0017, 17 thousandths of a second of his prediction that we say Ian had an easy win by 0.1465 of a second.

Scott, Ian and Chris all went through the next round so one more round and Scott would be champion, in the next round Scott unfortunately broke out by 5 thousandths of a second so now the first 3 coming into the event had all been eliminated !

Natalie was treated by Nick and Wayne to a passenger ride in the 2 seated dragster, her ride resulted in a run of 7.88 seconds at 168 mph, Natalie now has the bug and would like to drive a dragster!

We would like to thank all of our sponsors and supporters for their help, Bradjacksonracing.com couldn’t have had this level of success in the hardest class in Europe without your help!

Well Done Nick Good Motorsport!

Ian and Chris both went all the way and met in the final, the maths were simple, win the meeting, win the UK Championship, who would it be?
The winner was Chris Parker! Ian unfortunately red lit and cost himself a chance of the being the champion!
Congratulations to Chris on taking the championship, Chris drives another of our teams dragsters so well done Nick good Motorsport!

We would like to thank our wonderful crew, Nick Good, Christiann Carlo, Natalie Cooper and of course Alison, Brad’s mum, who has kept us all wonderfully fed throughout the season!

Although we feel a little disappointed today we gave it a really good shot and Brad has had a fantastic year winning the Open Sports Nationals and retaining his APIRA Super Pro Championship title for the second year in a row.

He also won the FIA European Finals meeting at Santa Pod, this is the highlight of the year for Brad, he had been runner up in this event in his junior dragster in 2010 when he was just 14 and red lit, so he has always wanted to win this event and lay that ghost to rest !

We are already planning our assault on the championship in 2017 and we will be presenting the car in a new livery at the Autosport International Motor Show in January so why not drop by and say hello?

FIA / FIM European Championships Finals

Santa Pod Raceway

8th – 11th September 2016

“Brad wins again”

We arrived at Santa Pod late on Wednesday night due to Brad’s work commitments so it was an early start on Thursday morning with Qualifying 1 due at 0930. Brad and Wayne were up at 6.30 to get signed on and the car scrutineered and back in the pits to get the car ready for Q1.

There were 39 cars entered for a 32 car field and this event attracts the best racers from many European countries so we were aware of how close qualifying would be. We started with a solid tenth of a second of dial in and this got us into the field at no 12, the next round we didn’t improve and had slipped to 20th and were conscious this was going to be a tough day.

The 3rd session Wayne dialed a 7.78 and we ran a 7.7867, 6 thousands of a second off the dial in put us in the field at number 7, over the next 4 sessions through Thursday and Friday we came close to improving, 7 thousands over and 3 thousands under the dial in but 6 thousands found us in 8th place, we were very happy with this position.

Incredibly a new record was set for the class with the first 13 places under 1 hundredth of a second, the previous best had been 8 !!

Saturday brought heavy rain and even though the track crew tried to dry the track after the rain had ceased by the afternoon, they couldn’t dry the shut down area so the track crew call the meeting for the day.

Sunday was a beautiful sunny day (all day) we went straight into eliminations, this was going to be a little tricky with not running the car for 2 days, but all the other teams were in the same situation. Our first round opponent was Mo Blackburn, a very experienced Super Pro racer, Wayne dialled a 7.75 and the car ran 7.77, Brad’s 0.02 of a second reaction time was a big factor in Brad taking the win.

We would like to thank all crew, especially Natalie Cooper who helped me (Wayne) service the car many times this weekend in quick succession, great work Nick Good and Cristiann Carlo and Alison for keeping the crew fed all weekend !

In round 2 Brad was drawn against Bernard Saz , Bernard’s team are from Andorra and put a huge effort into coming from the mountains between Spain and France to race at Santa Pod. Bernard has finally got his car running low 7 seconds and consistent, Brad cut another 0.02 light to Bernard’s 0.29 light so Brad took the win.

The next round Brad was facing Scott Hauser, Scott is currently the most successful driver in Super Pro with 2 championships in the last 3 years and multiple event wins, Scott’s father Geof Hauser is also one of the UK’s drag racing pioneers and has been in the sport since its inception in the 1960’s. Hauser race cars also build some of the very best cars in Europe.

The last time Brad and Scott met Brad red lit gifting the race to Scott, Brad was determined not to go red again! Brad pulled a 0.009 light to Scott’s 0.1014 light so the chasing Scott never caught Brad and also broke out in his effort to catch Brad, Brad loved this win and found it very satisfying after the pressure he had been under before this match up.

So we were in the semi-finals! Brad’s next race was with Pete Walters, another ex Junior Dragster Driver, and both Pete and Brad had been waiting for this match for a while! Brad once again took the advantage with a 0.0861 reaction to Pete’s 0.1363 but Pete’s car threw a con rod just before the stripe and Brad was in the Final!

Brad had made the European Final in Junior Dragster but red lit and lost; Brad has always felt that this was one that he gave away so was even more determined than usual that he wouldn’t make the same mistake.

The final was against Tom Atkinson, another very good and very clever racer, Brad and Wayne discussed at length what tactic to use with the dial in and a plan was in place, Brad cut another fantastic light, 0.044 to Tom’s 0.178 so Brad just had to make sure he didn’t breakout, Brad didn’t and now had won the event!

The win was sweet; Brad had won the most prestigious event we race at! Brad had also won the previous meeting, The Open Sports National, so two wins in a row has put Brad in a position where he can win the UK National championship at Santa Pod in 2 weeks time, the anticipation is already beginning to build with 5 drivers mathematically in with a chance of winning the championship, we are waiting for the results to be ratified but the Euro’s win has elevated Brad into second place in the championship so it’s going to be a really exciting weekend at the National Finals.

Brad also had a surprise on Friday when Liz, Brads girlfriend, had arranged for her and 4 of Brads friends to come to Santa Pod for their first look at Drag Racing, needless to say they had a fantastic weekend and really felt involved in the event and felt the excitement that our “winner and loser” every round sport delivers !

Bring on the National Finals at Santa Pod on the 24th-25th September!

Open Sports Nationals 27th – 29th August 2016

Shakespeare County Raceway

Stratford upon Avon

Champion Again!!

After the long summer break Alison and I set off for Stratford in the RV and Brad was coming down later due to College commitments in Milton Keynes, Brad loves driving his pride & joy , his classic MX5, so was quite happy to join us later.

Last year Brad had won the APIRA championship but we were a lowly 6th in the championship and needed some of the contenders above us to exit early and Brad to win the meeting to have any chance of retaining his title.

The crew had worked on the car during the break and had changed the torque convertor in an effort to increase the cars consistency so we were eagerly waiting to see how the car would perform. We had also fitted a cross brace in the chassis to improve the car’s stability so the teams expectations’ were high.

Our first qualifying session went well and Brad was in 7th position, unfortunately it then rained and we didn’t get any further runs in on the day. We had the company of Lucas Oil UK’s MD Les Downey and his wife Mo with us for the weekend and Les kept us laughing (as always) with his wit and anecdotes

After studying the data we changed the launch chip and looked forward to Sunday, Sunday was a great day with really good weather, we had 5 qualifying runs, and Brad reported that the car was running “strong & straight”, we had a great day and Brad finished the day in 11th place.

Monday was again a great day with the weather being hot and sunny,

In the 1st round we were drawn against Jack Brewster, an ex Super Pro champion, Jack red lit and gifted us an easy win on what would have been a tough race, Jack was also one of the competitors in front of Brad and also Ian Powell went out in round 1, another competitor in front of Brad in the championship, so this helped Brad’s cause.

I would like say a huge thank you to Nick Good and Cristiann Carlo for their dedication in preparing a great car !!

Round 2 we were drawn against Pete Walters but unfortunately Pete had holed a piston so was a no show, we had an easy round, but hey, you have to take them especially after the bad luck the team has had this year!

The championship now looked a real possibility with Chris Parker leading and Rick Cook in front of Brad on points, Brad drew Rick Cook in the semi finals, Chris Parker was racing Bob Doyle.

In the semi’s Brad beat Rick Cook and Chris Parker red lit leaving the final between Brad and Bob Doyle, a quick calculation showed if Brad won the meeting he would also be the APIRA champion for the second time, if Bob won then Chris Parker would take the championship and Brad would be runner up!

Brad and I had a discussion and we decided on our dial in together. Brad cut a great 0.04 light to Bob’s 0.13 so Brad had the edge and drove a great race to take the win!

The calculations show that Brad winning the event had taken the championship by just 80 point’s, less than a round win!

So Brad Jackson Racing love “Shakey” with 2014 runner up spot in the championship and 2015 & 2016 winning the championship, this is now a track the team really have a handle on !

We had a great weekend with Les and Mo, and it was great to see them both enjoy a race meeting in a quieter venue where Les was able to relax and just be part of the team for the weekend.

We would like to thank Nick Good and Cristiann Carlo for their dedication in preparing a great car for Brad, and of course a big thank you to all our sponsors, we couldn’t do it without your support!

This picture shows the champion leaving the track in his pride and joy heading for College Milton Keynes for the rest of the week!

We are now looking forward to the European Finals at Santa Pod in 2 weeks time!

Brad Jackson Racing’s new 2016 team race shirts designed by Kris Boesen of Six B Apparel in the USA are to feature in the Bandimere Speedway’s 2016 program, 75,000 will be printed up and given away so it is really an honour to be part of the Six B Apparel logo feature.
Kris has designed our team wear for the past 3 years and his service and commitment are second to none, give him a try, you will not be disappointed !

Autosport International, The Racing Car show

Brad Jackson Racing had Brad’s car on display at the NEC 14th-17th January 2016. Lucas Oil had teamed up with Santa Pod Raceway and shared a stand which worked out really well with both parties gaining lots of crossover between product and display.

It was a really positive event, the response the general public had to Brad’s car with many people saying that they knew what a Dragster was but had never seen one in “real life”, many people were really impressed with the look and quality of the dragster and they particularly liked the statistics of 0-60 mph in 0.87 of a second and 0-175 mph in 7.6 seconds.

Brad’s race suit sponsor’s HRX are from Italy, Ago Alberghino, HRX’s owner had never seen a dragster before and want us to take the car to Turin in October for a motor show, we will keep you posted on that, I’m just trying to arrange the transport logistics of the trip at the moment!
Torq racewear, HRX’s UK distributor are just working on some custom underwear and some custom gloves for Brad, HRX have a new range of gloves which can be personalised at a reasonable cost, checkout the website at http://torq-racewear.com

We are now busy preparing the car for the new season with a new wrap and team wear to be announced soon when the final design is agreed upon ! Watch this space for news.